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How to Earn Medals and Unlock Rewards in Pokémon Go

Medals are a fun way to show off your accomplishments and earn special bonuses in Pokémon Go. Any progress you make in Pokémon Go, whether by catching Pokémon, winning Gym battles, evolving Pokémon, is automatically counted towards a corresponding medal. There are a total of 40 different medals, and each badge has three ranks: Bronze, Silver, and Gold. Your medal will automatically upgrade to a new rank once the criteria has been met.

Both medals and gym badges feature three ranks, but don’t confuse the two. Medals are earned for completing various objectives, whereas badges are earned by earning experience at a specific Gym by participating in Gym-specific activities, such as defending the Gym or winning a raid. You can also earn rewards by achieving higher ranks of your Gym badges, and you can learn more about them in this guide.

There are two major categories of medals. The first focuses on gameplay progression, tasks such as capturing Pokémon, winning raid battles, hatching eggs, and other aspects of normal Pokémon Go. The second category is focused on catching specific types of Pokémon, such as Psychic-types or Rock-types.

If you want to catch the Mythical Pokémon Celebi, it's worth noting that one of the Special Research tasks requires you to earn the Gold Johto Medal. To do so, you'll have to catch and register 70 unique Johto region Pokémon to your Pokédex. Here's everything you'll need to know about medals in Pokémon Go!

Medals which increase catch rate of Pokémon

Many medals offer bonuses to catching a specific type of Pokémon. The more Pokémon you catch of a single type, the closer you’ll get to earning medals that make that Pokémon type easier to catch. The Bronze medal requires you to catch 10 Pokémon of a type, Silver requires 50, and Gold requires 200. As a reward, the catch rate is multiplied by 1.1 for Bronze, 1.2 for Silver, and 1.3 for Gold.

All type-specific badges in Pokémon Go

While these medals have cool names, echoing Trainer types you'd encounter in traditional Pokémon games, your Trainer in Pokémon Go will not earn any sort of title. Alas. Here’s a list of all of these medals and their requirements:

Badge

Criteria

Bronze

Silver

Gold

Bird Keeper

Catch Flying-type Pokémon

10

50

200

Black Belt

Catch Fighting-type Pokémon

10

50

200

Bug Catcher

Catch Bug-type Pokémon

10

50

200

Delinquent

Catch Dark-type Pokémon

10

50

200

Depot Agent

Catch Steel-type Pokémon

10

50

200

Dragon Tamer

Catch Dragon-type Pokémon

10

50

200

Fairy Tale Girl

Catch Fairy-type Pokémon

10

50

200

Gardener

Catch Grass-type Pokémon

10

50

200

Hex Maniac

Catch Ghost-type Pokémon

10

50

200

Hiker

Catch Rock-type Pokémon

10

50

200

Kindler

Catch Fire-type Pokémon

10

50

200

Psychic

Catch Psychic-type Pokémon

10

50

200

Punk Girl

Catch Poison-type Pokémon

10

50

200

Rocker

Catch Electric-type Pokémon

10

50

200

Ruin Maniac

Catch Ground-type Pokémon

10

50

200

Schoolkid

Catch Normal-type Pokémon

10

50

200

Skier

Catch Ice-type Pokémon

10

50

200

Swimmer

Catch Water-type Pokémon

10

50

200

Medals which unlock cosmetic items

Select medals will unlock access to exclusive cosmetic items in the store. Unfortunately, you’ll still have to spend PokeCoins to actually obtain these items, but you can learn how to earn PokeCoins without spending real world money in this guide.

Earn the Pikachu Fan Medal to unlock Pikachu-themed rewards.

The following medals unlock store items when obtained:

Badge

Criteria

Bronze

Silver

Gold

Battle Girl

Win # Gym battles

10

100

1000

The Battle Girl medal unlocks the following items in the Store. These items are available to female Trainers only:

Bronze: Battle Girl Gloves

Silver: Battle Girl Shoes, Battle Girl Shorts

Gold: Battle Girl Tank Top

Badge

Criteria

Bronze

Silver

Gold

Fisherman

Catch # big Magikarp

3

50

300

The Fisherman medal unlocks the following items in the Store. These items are available to male Trainers only:

Bronze: Fisherman Cap

Silver: Fisherman Shorts, Fisherman Shoes

Gold: Fisherman Vest

Badge

Criteria

Bronze

Silver

Gold

Gym Leader

Defend Gyms for # hours

10

100

1000

The Gym Leader medal unlocks the following items in the Store:

Bronze: Gym Leader Gloves

Silver: Gym Leader Shoes, Gym Leader Skirt

Gold: Gym Leader Top

Badge

Criteria

Bronze

Silver

Gold

Jogger

Walk a certain distance

10km

100km

1000km

The Jogger medal unlocks the following items in the Store. These items are available to male Trainers only:

Bronze: Jogger Sunglasses, Jogger Visor, Jogger Watch

Silver: Jogger Shoes, Jogger Shorts

Gold: Jogger Tank Top

Badge

Criteria

Bronze

Silver

Gold

Pikachu Fan

Catch # Pikachu

3

50

300

The Pikachu Fan medal unlocks the following items in the Store:

Bronze: Pikachu Fan Headband

Silver: Pikachu Fan Shoes, Pikachu Fan Shorts

Gold: Pikachu Fan Shirt

Medals which offer no additional benefits (but are still cool)

These medals offer no significant advantage and exist solely as achievements for your progress in Pokémon Go. You’ll gain nothing for earning these medals except the satisfaction of being the very best, like no one ever was:

Medal

Criteria

Bronze

Silver

Gold

Backpacker

Visit # PokéStops

100

1000

2000

Battle Legend

Win # Legendary Raids

10

100

1000

Berry Master

Feed # Berries

10

100

1000

Breeder

Hatch # of Eggs

10

50

500

Champion

Win # Raids

10

100

1000

Collector

Catch # of Pokémon

30

500

2000

Hoenn

Register # Hoenn region Pokémon to Pokédex

5

40

90

Johto

Register # of Johto Pokémon to Pokédex

5

30

70

Kanto

Register # of Kanto Pokémon in the Pokédex

5

50

100

Pikachu Fan

Catch # Pikachu

3

50

300

Scientist

Evolve # of Pokémon

3

20

200

Unown

Catch # of Unown

3

10

26

Youngster

Catch # tiny Rattata

3

50

300

Since Gyms in Pokémon Go were reworked in 2017, the following medal was removed and you can no longer earn progress toward it. Only Trainers who have obtained this medal will still see this medal in their list:

Badge

Criteria

Bronze

Silver

Gold

Ace Trainer

Train a certain number of times

10

100

1000

Special, event-only medals

There are a handful of exclusive medals which could only be obtained by participating in real world Pokémon Go events. Once an event has passed, the medal is no longer available. These medals exist at Gold rank only, and are displayed in the medal list only for those who have obtained them.